After reading this case study there appears to be only one overarching problem – the teacher did not provide sufficient direction/guidance for the students. This problem is demonstrated by the students’ behavior symptomatic of lack of guidance/direction.
The priorities for improving the lesson are as followed:
Include timelines and task requirements for individual students and group
Include rubric for content expectation
Model procedures for collaborative work (ex. disccussing which edits need to be made prior to editing)
It is important to realize that this project was the teacher’s first attempt to use a wiki as the medium for completing an assignment. Therefore, the students would have little experience collaborating in this way, at least for this class and would require constant, detailed guidance/direction.
The main problem, lack of direction/guidance, has been divvied into three categories (see table 1) and discussed.
Table 1.
Category
Manifestation(s)
Proposal
Insufficient planning
Students did not share work equally; students were reluctant to collaborate
"only one student worked to write the essay"
"some of them just copied from other websites"
Student expectations as individual contributors
The teacher should create a timeline laying out milestones and due dates and provide it to students
Student roles should be created by the teacher which students will assign to each other in their groups
A handout on copyrights should also be provided to the students and explained to them how the laws work
Poorly communicating expectations
Students overlooked content
"wiki look pretty, changing formats"
Rubric- content expectations (we need to create a rubric for this lesson).
The teacher should have a rubric with clear expectations for grading the pages and what input she expects from each student.
What kind of information the teacher is looking for and what's unacceptable (sources) should be listed.
"editing one another's work, challenging one another's thinking" -
Insufficient modeling of appropriate group behavior
Students displayed poor “netiquette”
"changed my page"
"his entry was deleted by his peer"
"students ended up writing their own paragraphs"
Student expectations as a group.
Students should be encouraged to work as a team and know that the webpage belongs to all of them, not just one or two.
They should all be held responsible for the information provided.
Idea for improving lesson: All students required to conduct research on own questions. Instead of grouping the students immediately after selecting their questions, student groups are formed after individual students have completed their individual research (including information, diagrams, etc). Then as a group, pool their knowledge to create a summarizing question and presentation answering that group question with information from each individual report. It would give the students something to take into the group and can be a good starting point for group discussions if they have to explain their questions and research to each other. It would also make it easier for them to find ways to pool and reorganize and clarify, rather than having the students try and find ways to create a group project individually. During discussions, each would have to explain why their information should be used. That way, all are involved and accountable for the group presentation.
The priorities for improving the lesson are as followed:
It is important to realize that this project was the teacher’s first attempt to use a wiki as the medium for completing an assignment. Therefore, the students would have little experience collaborating in this way, at least for this class and would require constant, detailed guidance/direction.
The main problem, lack of direction/guidance, has been divvied into three categories (see table 1) and discussed.
Table 1.
Idea for improving lesson:
All students required to conduct research on own questions. Instead of grouping the students immediately after selecting their questions, student groups are formed after individual students have completed their individual research (including information, diagrams, etc). Then as a group, pool their knowledge to create a summarizing question and presentation answering that group question with information from each individual report. It would give the students something to take into the group and can be a good starting point for group discussions if they have to explain their questions and research to each other. It would also make it easier for them to find ways to pool and reorganize and clarify, rather than having the students try and find ways to create a group project individually. During discussions, each would have to explain why their information should be used. That way, all are involved and accountable for the group presentation.